The Beasts of Face
by bhuvan21
Summary: This story depicts an alternate way of how the Fairy Tail universe came to be. It tells the story of how the magical guilds came into existence, how the heroes we know and love trained to be where they are today. It tells of how they defeated Tartaros's dastardly plans and defended the Kingdom of Fiore. All with a hopefully, more realistic twist.
1. Chapter 1

Hello everybody! I'm back after a pretty long rest. I didn't forget or anything. Totally. But in any case, I'm extremely happy to bring you my first chapter in this new fanfiction. Just to let you all know, I've written quite a few of the chapters a while before I post them so that if for some reason I can't write one, I still have one to post for you guys. I don't want to say too much about the actual plot, so here you go! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.

P.S: This is Lucy's POV.

—

The room was dark. Only the light from the moon illuminated the woman kneeling on the ground, before a shadowy figure. She was clearly not fully human. She had long barbed talons and feathers flowing from her head. Her hawk-like eyes would have been filled with smug arrogance, at any other time, before any other person.

"How much longer will I have to wait for you pathetic excuses for demons?" spat the black-haired man, shrouded in shadows. Globules of spit flew from his mouth as he spoke, landing on the floor in front of the kneeling woman.

"There were a few, setbacks in our plans. Only a few more weeks now, my Lord," replied the masked lady on the floor, the quiver in her voice evident.

"A few more weeks," repeated the man, "Incompetent fools. You know I'll have to punish you for this, don't you Kyôka,"

"Master, please -" cried the woman, raising her head up in distress. Her features were hidden by a cruel mask, but the anguish in her voice was all too obvious.

"How dare you not kneel in my presence!" thundered the man, rising from his seat, his face still hidden, "I'm going to have to punish you even more for that," He walked slowly towards her. The last thing she saw before she passed out from the intense pain, was the man's face glinting in the light, his features contorted into a sadistic grin.

—

"Help! Please, no!" I yelled, thrashing around in my bed, still half-asleep. One of my flailing arms caught my bedside lamp mid-swing, knocking it to the floor. The loud crash of the glass bulb breaking was more than enough to wake me. I opened my eyes, before realising what had happened.

"Stupid nightmares," I mumbled, forcing myself out of bed to get a dustpan to sweep up the broken glass. Once the floor next to my bed was free of glass, I glanced over at my clock and decided that there was no point going back to sleep as I'd have to get up in a few minutes for work anyway. Sighing, I walked through the apartment to my kitchen, where I made myself a breakfast of cereal. The cereal tasted like cardboard, but in financially tough times like these, it was all I could afford. Finishing up, I put the bowl near the sink and changed into my work clothes. Nothing too formal, the business I worked for didn't really care what the employees did, as long as the work got done. Before I left, I drained a cup of coffee, rousing me out of my morning dreariness.

As I walked to my train station, I realised just how weird my dream had been.

"I've been watching too many movies recently," I thought, dismissing the thought from my head.

Grabbing a newspaper for the journey, I boarded the train and searched for a seat. There was a surprisingly large amount of people there for an early Friday morning. I contemplated my options. The only free seats were next to a black haired man wearing a leather jacket with metal studs or next to a pink-haired guy stroking a cat. I approached the black-haired man, but the look in his eyes when he noticed me, was a clear indicator that he didn't want to be disturbed. I took my seat next to the man with his cat.

"Crime Rate of Magnolia Rises to All-Time High!" screamed the headlines, "Suburbs of Magnolia Bombed!"

I had hoped to find some positive news in the paper, but it seemed that everything was still going downhill. As I flicked through the paper, more and more stories of bombings, killings and assassinations littered the pages. The thought of all this terror was just too sickening; I put the paper away and looked around the carriage. Opposite me was a smiling white-haired girl, wearing a red dress. The horror must have shown on my face because she smiled sympathetically at me. The crowd today was a weird lot, with a lady dressed in a bullet-proof vest, a bodybuilder who had definitely taken too many steroids and a little blue-haired girl. Thankfully, I didn't have time to think about it too much, as the train ground to a halt at the terminating station: Magnolia City.

The whole carriage emptied itself, with me in the middle of the mix. I walked hurriedly so as not to be tripped over by the people walking quickly behind me, scanning my pass at the automatic doors, and exiting into the main street.

Light flooded onto me, brightly illuminating the area compared to the dimly lit interior of the station. Once my eyes adjusted to the change of light, I blinked rapidly, looking around at the skyscrapers around me. All the big companies had their offices here in the centre of Magnolia, as well as all the high-profile shops. I couldn't understand how Magnolia could look so bright and cheerful when the world as we knew it was going to pieces. Suddenly, I was snapped out of my pondering. The bustle around me had stopped. The crowds were no longer pushing and shoving their way past me. A hush had fallen over them, and they were all looking up. I craned my neck upwards, slightly worried by this uncharacteristic behaviour. Then I realised why.

A large oval shaped object was falling from the sky. It was blocking out the sun, casting its massive shadow over us. We were frozen by shock, and time seemed to slow but as it grew closer and closer, the crowd began to run. I ran with them, the terror setting in, that this could be my last moment on earth; it was going to crush us. There was no time to comprehend the situation. I glanced up, checking where exactly the large object was going to land and sprinted away from the station. The panic had set in for the others, and I could see them running with me. Shouts and screams now filled the air and a faint noise could be heard from the falling object speeding through the air.

Suddenly, as I glanced behind me again, I tripped over a small rock lying on the floor and fell on my back. I would have scrambled to get up, but I noticed the shape of the rapidly approaching object. It was a large face, carved out of stone, of gigantic proportions. It must have taken a while to create such a masterpiece, so why drop it out of the sky?. I lay there, wonderstruck by this piece of art, almost forgetting that it was almost going to crush me. People ran past me, only trying to save themselves. The pink haired man I had seen in the train ran past me but stopped abruptly.

"Come on! What're you doing!" shouted the pink-haired man, having caught sight of me "Get up and run!"

He grabbed my hand and pulled me up, pushing me away from the face. I grabbed the key I had tripped over and regained my balance. Before I had time to thank him, a humanoid figure whizzed past me, in mid-air, heading straight for the face. I cried out in shock, as the figure smashed into the statue, breaking it into tiny stone shards. They spread apart and fell towards the ground, harmlessly. The crowds slowed again and started to return, investigating the change of circumstances. I started to cheer, and I could feel my heart rate slowing, but a bright purple light broke free from the shards as they smashed into the ground. The light whirled upwards forming a swirling tornado as high as the skyscrapers. It writhed around itself, generating enormous winds around us, before fading. The light had been cloaking a monstrous beast, clad in yellow garments. It had a feminine form, with clear wings erupting from its back. Its eyes shone like the sun, its mouth opened in an agitated howl of rage, and as its gaze swivelled onto me, I saw its tail coming towards me a full speed. It was just too much; reminding myself to never watch any more movies, I passed out from the shock.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! It's only the first of many to come! I'm not sure if I managed to reveal enough, while still keeping it kind of mysterious, so please leave a review and tell me how I did. Another chapter should be on its way soon, as I have pre-written a bunch so I can keep a steady upload flow. Please review, favourite and follow! Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

Hello, everyone! I'm writing this back to back with the previous chapter, so I don't really have anything to say except, that this chapter is a little info-heavy so make sure you pay attention! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.

—

The woman knelt before the man again. He was sitting in the dark again. She was squirming nervously.

"It is done master," said the woman, "The beasts have been released,"

"All eight of them?" came the reply.

"Yes master,"

"And are they following the orders?"

"N-no master," stuttered the woman.

"Again!" shouted the man, rage taking over his calm tone, standing up and slamming his foot into the ground, "Why can you imbeciles not do a thing I ask properly?"

"I'm sorry master - it won't happen again,"

"You're damn right it won't," he replied, the steel returning to his now calm voice "Not when I'm done with you,"

The woman did not look up. She had learnt that the punishment was inevitable. She braced herself for the pain.

—

"Hellooooooo? Wake up already!" shouted the pink-haired man, "Wake up!"

"Aghhhhhh!" I screamed, suddenly awake, "Monster!"

My quivering finger pointed straight at the man in front of me.

"Nope," he said calmly, "Not a monster, although I do own a cat,"

"What happened?" I asked frantically, "Where'd the big yellow monster go? Where are we? How are we alive?"

"I have no idea," he said. I took a moment to look around the room we were in. Not a hospital, but a wooden cabin? The walls were bare, and dust covered the floor. Two beds which we had been lying on, but absolutely nothing else was in the room. It looked like no-one had been here for a while. The only trace of human activity was the set of footprints left in the dust leading to a closed door.

"Do you remember what happened?" I asked him, "Am I going crazy, or were we about to die?"

"Ah, thank goodness I'm not the only one who remembers that. I really thought I was going delusional there," he smiled at me, obviously relieved, "I only just woke up, then I started to panic when I noticed my cat had disappeared, and then when I realised I had no idea where I was or what was happening, so I woke you up, hoping you'd know what's going on,"

"I'm afraid I can't help you there," I said, lost in thought. Again, I had dreamt of that woman and the terrible man.

"Did you ever consider trying the door?" I asked, gesturing at it.

"Erm, well, I kinda' assumed it'd be locked," he said sheepishly, as I got up and turned the handle.

"Well you'd be wrong," I replied, "After you?"

The door opened into a long corridor, lined with wooden doors. To our surprise, there were other people awake wandering around. The bodybuilder, the little girl, the smiling woman who had been opposite me on the train. All of them were just emerging out of their doors, seeming as dazed as we were. Not just them though, plenty of other people who I could only assume had been at the station with us. I could just about hear little snippets of the conversations they were having.

"Massive yellow monster -"

"Smashed its tail on the ground-"

"And there was all that light-"

"Like a tornado!"

"Seems like we weren't going crazy," I muttered to myself. Before I had time to go talk to the other people, a loud voice pierced through our chatter.

"Follow me!" yelled an old man standing at the end of the corridor, "I'll answer all your questions, just follow me,"

Eager to have our questions answered, we formed a crowd and followed the old man. As I followed the other, I bumped into the white-haired girl from before.

Catching sight of me, she spoke, "Well this is exciting isn't it?"

This caught me off guard, she was completely unfazed by this whole experience! I had no time to think about it though, the crowd was forging ahead into another room. It was a large hall, too large for a simple wooden cabin. I was really starting to wonder where on Earth we were. The room was filled with chairs, neatly lined up in rows, in front of a stage. The pink-haired guy and I took seats at the front, not wanting to miss a thing from this explanation. I was hoping the white-haired girl would sit with us, but instead, she joined the old man on the stage. They smiled at each other, having exchanged a few words. Who was this girl? Once we had settled down, the man began to speak, "Good afternoon to you all. I know most of you have no idea what's going on and are probably scared out of your mind. I know you all want me to give you some rational explanation that conveniently explains everything. I wish I could say that was true. What I'm about to tell you will change your lives forever. For the better or worse, I can't say. Before I get to the main part of my explanation, there's something I must tell you all. Supernatural forces exist in this world,"

Seeing the confusion on our faces, he elaborated, "Magic is real,"

The uproar was immediate. People stood up immediately, hurling insults at the man, asking him for the truth. Any other man of his age would have cowered under such a barrage, but the man in front of us simply held out his hand to silence them.

"Would you believe me if I did, this!" he shouted at the mob. With that, the anger on his face grew intense, and he started to, grow. His body turned black, like a shadow and it shot up to the ceiling, expanding as it did so. His short skinny body had been transformed into that of an Olympic wrestler if the wrestler was the tallest man in the world. My jaw dropped, and a hush fell over the room. We had been expecting something weird, but nothing like this. I had no idea what to think. It was obviously not a trick, there was no way that could have been an illusion. People began to sit down again, trying to comprehend what they were seeing.

"Now, if you'll let me continue," he said, glaring at a few people in the crowd, "Magic is real, and it has been for a while. It used to be ridiculously rare, and only certain people had the power to wield it. Nowadays, that's not the case anymore. Magic has been given to all sorts of the wrong people, and most of them think they're Gods. My name is Master Makarov, and I'm the head of an alliance of ten wizards. Our goals are simple. To relinquish these delinquents of their power. However, over the years that they've possessed this power, they've only grown stronger. You are the result of their latest plan. Some of you seem to remember the events leading up to this. However, as it seems not all of you do, I'll fill you in. Tartaros, or the main group of evil magicians, recently attempted to unleash eight beasts upon Earthland, in the hopes that they would be able to control them and bend them to their will. These beasts were much more powerful than they expected them to be, and are not co-operating with them. Instead, they are loose in Fiore, rampaging around the land. Now, as some of you may recall, there was a large stone statue hurtling towards the ground. This was just one of the eight dropped in Magnolia at the time. It was meant to smash on the ground, releasing enough magical energy to bring back one of these beasts at its full power. However, this young lady next to me, Mirajane, was able to smash it before it could hit the ground," he gestured towards the white-haired girl as he spoke. My mind was racing. So this girl was a ... wizard?

"The beast was still created but since Mirajane got to it before it had been completely summoned, she was able to destroy it. It was a fairy, the most dangerous of the eight. From what we understand, the excess energy, from the beast being destroyed was spread into the air you were breathing. This may come as a shock, but most of you will now be able to use some magic. The magic energy will have definitely have been absorbed into your bloodstream by now, and you may notice some changes occurring soon. Now, I have a favour to ask you all,"

Well, that was a lot of information all at once. If you feel I haven't explained this well enough, or have any questions, please PM me/review and I'll be sure to get back to you. Please review, follow, favourite and all that stuff. Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Hello, everyone! Another chapter here, still a little more unpacking of the story to do, but please bear with me. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own FT.

"Now I have a favor to ask you all," Master Makarov continued, "The eight beasts that were released on Fiore, must be stopped. No question about it. They're much too dangerous to be allowed to live. However, the ten of us in the alliance, as well as a few other stray wizards, are nowhere near powerful enough, nor are there enough of us to defeat them on our own, as well as stopping Tartaros from re-capturing them. I'm asking for your help, to defeat these beasts. It is a choice, however, not an order. I don't wish to drag you along unwillingly. The rooms you were in have been cleaned and furnished now, so if you haven't made up your mind soon, you can stay the night to think. Don't worry about your employers, or any other commitments you may have had; I've taken care of them. That is all I have to say to you for now,"

And with that, he disappeared, leaving us shell-shocked, from his speech. Mirajane came down from the stage and sat down next to me. No-one had moved from their seats yet; we were all still dazed.

"Bit of a shock isn't it?" she smiled at me warmly, "It was a shock to me too when I found out all about it. Mind you, I was only a child when it happened, so I guess I wasn't affected as much. Since then, I've been learning more and more about magic from Master Makarov and the alliance. Anyway, I do hope you give it some thought - I get the feeling we're going to be seeing a lot of each other in the next few days,"

Saying that she too disappeared. I wasn't sure what to say. Life as I knew it wasn't too great. I wouldn't mind a bit of excitement. But this? If anything, it seemed dangerous. I stood up, heading back through into the corridor to the room. I needed to think.

The room had been cleaned, as Master Makarov had said, but that wasn't an issue. I believed him completely about the magic. It just seemed so logical, the recent crime sprees, bombings, all the work of magic. If nothing else, his display was good enough proof for me. It was just a question of whether this was worth it. If I returned to my normal life, would I live forever knowing that I gave up a unique opportunity, and live with that regret? No, I couldn't do that to myself. I was so lost in thought, I hadn't even noticed the door open.

"Penny for your thoughts?" the pink-haired guy asked.

"What? - Oh," I said, startled by his sudden appearance, "Just thinking,"

"Yeah, I see why. What d'you make of it all? The whole magic thing?" he replied.

"I - I think I believe him," I voiced my opinion shakily, "I mean, it just seems to make so much sense,"

"Exactly!" he exclaimed, "Everything just lines up perfectly, and to be honest, there really can't be any other explanation. To be honest though, I'm more excited about the whole, us using magic bit. It just seems so awesome!"

"Not the word I would use, but the idea is appealing," I said, trying not laugh at his enthusiasm, "I think I'm going to sleep on it - considering it's getting late, and I have no idea what to do,"

"Good idea!" he said, and jumped under the duvet. I got into my own bed as well, and closed my eyes.

"My name's Natsu Dragneel, by the way," he said.

"I'm Lucy," I replied, "Good night,"

The next morning, I woke up early; the building was silent. I considered going back to sleep, but I knew that there was no point waiting any longer to decide. To be honest, there really was nothing pulling me back to my old life, and, I could always back out of this whole "magic" business if I didn't like it, right? I debated with myself internally for a few more minutes, before coming to a decision. I was going learn magic.

Having firmly decided, I got out of bed, and made my way back to the large hall from yesterday's explanation, hoping that there would be someone there to meet me. Luckily enough, Mirajane was there already, seemingly waiting for people to arrive.

"Hello!" she greeted me, "Have you decided?"

"Yes," I replied, "I'm going to do it,"

"I thought you would!" she exclaimed, "Follow me! You're the first one here!"

And with that, she led me to another room, through a door on the left side of the hall. It was a fairly large room, and like the hall contained enough chairs to seat at least fifty people. At the front of the room were Master Makarov and a man standing beside him. The man was dressed oddly, wearing a dark face-mask with long black flowing robes. The only part of him that was visible was his dark eyes. They stared unwaveringly at me as if they could see straight through me. I shifted uneasily and took a step back.

"Go on, sit down," said Mirajane gesturing forward.

"Uh, sure," I said, avoiding the mysterious man's gaze, his eyes fixated on me. However, just before I could sit down, I heard a loud shouting coming from the other room. Master Makarov immediately rushed out of the room, followed quickly by Mirajane. Not wanting to be left alone with that man, I followed too.

People had started to arrive, and most of them were waiting near the entrance to the corridor, thinking. One yellow-haired man wearing spiked headphones was standing in the middle of the room, shouting at everyone.

"Stupid fools! You really believe this prankster old man? You're all dumber than I thought. Seriously? I mean -"

"That's enough," Master Makarov spoke, "If you don't want to believe me then don't. I don't care. But whilst you're entitled to your own opinion, do not force it on others. In any case, you're not welcome here,"

And he waved his hand, the man disappeared.

"Sorry about that," he apologized, smiling warmly at the bewildered crowd, "I'll be waiting in this room,"

He returned to the previous room, a sizeable portion of the crowd following.

I sat down in the previous room, glad to no longer be alone with the strange man in front of us. He was no longer staring at me; his eyes were darting around the room, inspecting every person present. Natsu sat down next to me.

"So you did decide to come along then," he smiled, "But who's the creepy guy over there?"

"No idea," I replied, "I guess he's another wizard,"

"Cool!" exclaimed Natsu.

"Hello everybody!" shouted Master Makarov over the chatter of the room, "Settle down."

The chatter of the room quietened before disappearing; everyone wanted to hear what Master Makarov had to say.

"First of all, thank you for the choice you have made. I guarantee you, it was not the wrong one. However, the journey will be tough. Magic is not easy. I will ask you all again, are you prepared to learn magic? If you aren't, now is your last chance to leave."

No one moved.

"Well then," he said, the worry from his face disappearing, "Let's get started!"

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please favourite, review, and follow. Any constructive criticism/typos would be welcomed! See you all later!


	4. Chapter 4

Hello, everyone! Here's another chapter to read! Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own FT.

"The first thing you need to know about magic is that there are many many different types of magic. For example, Mirajane here possesses Satan Soul magic, and Mystogan here is able to read the types of magic others possess as well as many other talents. The first step to transforming you all into capable magic-users is to see what type of magic you all possess. This is why I have Mystogan with me today. As I mentioned previously, he is able to read the type of magic that you all possess. So, please form a queue and Mystogan here will tell you what type of magic you possess," said Master Makarov.

Most of us were apprehensive at first, but after a small blue-haired girl stepped up, more and more of us joined the line. The mysterious man took the girl's hand and closed his eyes. A symbol glowed bright blue from the back of the girl's hand, in the shape of a gust of wind.

"Very nice, a sky dragonslayer!" commented Master Makarov, "Why don't you just follow Mirajane into that room over there,"

The little girl, Wendy followed the beaming Mirajane into the following room and the queue moved forward. The next person, a heavily muscled man stepped up. The queue grew shorter and shorter with various different types of magic being announced: Animal Soul, Requip, Ice-Make, and all sorts of others. Finally, it was my turn to be read.

Mystogan clasped my hands between his and closed his eyes. For a moment, nothing happened, and my heart jumped to my throat. What if there was some mistake? What if they were wrong and I'm not special? Why would I be? I knew I shouldn't have done this. All sorts of anxieties ran through my mind and I opened my eyes, fearing the worst. Instead, a golden mark blazed from the skin just below my knuckles. A key. That was interesting. Considering I had recently found . . .

I pulled out the key from my pocket.

"Very impressive!" said Master Makarov, "And you've already got your own key! Celestial spirit magic - very nice! Just go ahead to the others, you'll learn more later,"

I put the key back in my pocket, and I entered the room that Master Makarov had gestured to. Mirajane was standing in the middle of the room, apparently waiting for me. She inspected the mark on my hand and directed me towards another room.

A group of other "to-be wizards" were sitting in the classroom, with a middle-aged stern-faced man standing at the front. He wore a thick fur coat and was smoking a pipe.

"Ah, hello there," he said, "You're the last of the class to arrive - take a seat,"

I obliged at took a seat next to a white haired girl.

"Hello everyone," the man smiled, "My name is Wakaba Mine, and I use smoke magic. Now, the reason I'm here to teach you is that you all are going to learn to use various types of holder magic. Holder magic is a type of magic which allows you to use magic through using a certain item, dependant on your type of magic. With this pipe, I'd be useless. Your type of magic should reflect upon some hobby or trait that you possess. So what types of magic do you all possess?"

We went round the room, revealing our types of magic, and discussing them. There was a large variety, from guns magic to card magic, and to my own, celestial spirit magic. I learned that celestial spirit magic allowed the user to summon spirits from the spirit world. The user had to make contracts with them. Then, they could be summoned at will through keys, like the one in my pocket. The more experienced you were, the longer you could keep your spirits out of the celestial world. I wasn't the only one, the girl next to me also possessed this magic, although she didn't have a key. Before long, we were all up to speed.

"Now," said Wakaba, "That you understand what you're dealing with, Master Makarov has prepared all sorts of exercises for you to do to improve you magic powers. You will complete this work in groups with other wizards with all sorts of types of magic. The groups are listed on the board outside this classroom. Now, go ahead a have something to eat, and then the real training will begin," he said with a glint in his eye.

I exited the room, and sure enough, there was a huddle of people around the notice board. I managed to squeeze through the crowd and took a look at the groups. I scanned the board until I found my name under group 5.

Group 5 - Mirajane Strauss

Natsu Dragneel

Lucy Heartfilia

Erza Scarlet

Gray Fullbuster

Wendy Marvell

Levy Mcgarden

Gajeel Redfox

To be honest, most of the names meant nothing to me. At least I was with Natsu, someone I already knew, and Mirajane was the leader, but I wasn't sure about any of the others. I headed off to lunch, hoping to find out more about the people in the group.

I returned to the large hall, which now contained sets of tables and chairs, each of with had a sign referring to a certain group. I found the group five table easily and saw Natsu chatting to the smaller girl from earlier. I took a seat opposite them.

"Hi Natsu, and, Wendy was it?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied nervously, "Wendy Marvell,"

"I'm Lucy Heartfilia," I introduced myself, "Nice to meet you,"

"Guess what Lucy!" interrupted Natsu, "I'm a dragonslayer! With fire!"

"Wow!" I replied, before realizing I had no idea what that meant, "So, uh, what does that do exactly?"

"Basically, we can use cool powers relating to our elements, like I could summon fire, and Wendy could control air currents!" he responded animatedly.

"That's neat," I replied, wondering if my power was any good. Before I could wonder anymore, a large guy sat down in the one seat that wasn't next to any of us. He said nothing, not even an introduction, but simply avoided our gazes.

"That's Gajeel," whispered Natsu to me, "He's pretty scary,"

I stifled a laugh, seeing Natsu finally say something in a volume that not everyone in the room could hear, but I just nodded. The other three in the group arrived together, the red haired girl (with a bulletproof vest) that I had seen on the train, a blue haired girl with glasses as well as a shirtless, guy.

The blue haired girl introduced herself as Levy, the shirtless guy as Gray, and the red haired girl, Erza was pleased to meet our acquaintance. As food began to arrive to the tables, Natsu put his hand into the middle of the table and proclaimed, "To the strongest team!"

We all followed suit and layered our hands on top of his. All of us except Gajeel.

"Come on man," complained Natsu, "Don't be that way,"

Gajeel opened his eyes, gave us a look, and closed them again.

"Drama queen," I thought to myself, as we raised our hands to the ceiling, with a chorus of "Strongest team!"

That's all for now. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please favourite, follow and review. Any constructive criticism would be very much appreciated! Thanks for reading, and I'll see you all later!


	5. Chapter 5

Hello everybody! I'm back with another chapter! Sorry for the long wait. This chapter was inspired mainly from fairy tail zero as that's really the only time where magic is shown to be learnt. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own FT

"Alright guys," said Mirajane, "Why don't we all take a moment to introduce ourselves before we get started with the training. I'll go first. My name is Mirajane Strauss; I'm user of Satan Soul magic, and I'm nineteen years old,"

We went round the circle introducing ourselves. After we had finished, Mirajane began to explain to us what our first exercises would be.

"Our primary objective for today, is to see if we can get you guys to use some magic. At this stage, it won't be very powerful at all, but strength will come with time. As you may have learnt from your previous teachers, magic only works when a wizard absorbs ethernanos from the air and turns that into magic power. The best way to absorb these ethernanos is to meditate. Whilst it may seem dull, it's really the only way to get started with magic. Lets go!"

For hours, we sat together in a circle, each of us concentrating completely on our shared goal. To become strong. At first it seemed impossible to stay still for so long, but over time, I grew used to it and embraced the feeling of nothingness. As our session was nearing the end, a sudden crackling noise woke me from my state of subconsciousness. I opened my eyes slowly, adjusting to the bright light. After my eyes had recovered, they opened wide. Natsu was sitting up straight, eyes wide open, a large grin on his face. A red aura of power was flickering around his body, casting the room in a red light.

"All right!" he yelled, alerting everyone to his success.

"Good job Natsu!" smiled Mirajane, "Now try to channel that feeling of energy into magic,"

Natsu closed his eyes again, and the red aura faded away. Then, suddenly, a bright red flame appeared in his open palm, flickering around and licking at his wrists.

"Awesome!" he exclaimed, losing his concentration. The flame quickly died out.

"Well done Natsu," she said and turned to the rest of us, "Don't worry that your powers haven't emerged yet. To be honest, I didn't expect any of you to be able to channel the ethernanos like Natsu did today. I myself took a full week to even be able to meditate properly for more than an hour. Go ahead and have dinner, we'll work on this more tomorrow."

After dinner, we returned to our rooms. Meditation may not look tiring at all, but it sure is. I crashed into my bed, exhausted from the efforts of the day. Natsu entered the room a few minutes later, lying down as well, his cat curling up at the foot of his bed.

"Good night Natsu," I said, sleepily.

"Good night Luce," he replied.

"Luce?" I asked.

"Yeah, Luce! It's your new nickname. I just thought of it!"

"Oh, alright," I responded, too tired to think twice about it; I promptly fell asleep.

The next week was full of more meditation session. Natsu managed to grow his flames every session, so much so that we needed to move rooms, just so he wouldn't burn the place down. Wendy managed to use her powers the next day, filling the room with strong gusts. Gajeel followed suit and turned his arm into iron. Gray gave us a brief respite from the burning temperatures caused by Natsu by chilling us all to the bone. Levy surprised us all by creating floating letters which danced around. And Erza, well. Her power was, different. She, well, she changed clothes. Later we learned that her power only allowed her to change into armours/clothes which she owned, meaning that there wasn't really much she would have been able to do then.

However, whilst all the others were growing stronger, I never managed to convert any ethernano in magic power. I could sustain the aura for almost an hour, but I could never do any magic. Then Mirajane had an idea.

"You know, I think I might just have an idea as to why your magic isn't working. Try again, but this time, instead of trying to convert that energy into magic, try summoning a spirit from that key of yours. Since you use holder magic, you might just need to hold the key?"

I took a deep breath, clutched the key tightly in my right hand, and sat calmly. Then, as if everything had suddenly fallen into place, I uttered the words, "Open, gate of Canis Minor, Nikora!"

A bright light bathed the room, and a small figure emerged from the light. It was a small round, snowman like creature.

"Pun-pun?", it inquired.

"Woah!" exclaimed Natsu, "A snowman!"

"It's a dog," I muttered, wondering where this kind of power had come from.

"Nice work Lucy! I suggest you make a contract with it so you can call it for later use." said Mirajane.

Plue and I (I decided to name him Plue) went through the week, figuring out when he was free, and after we had an arrangement figured out I closed the gate, sending him back to the celestial spirit world.

"Good job all of you!", Mira congratulated us all, "Now that you all are able to use some magic, I've designed specific training exercises for all of you. Natsu, Wendy and Gajeel, you'll all train together, seeing as you're all dragonslayers. I've left instructions for you guys here," she gestured to a nearby table, " Gray, luckily for you, we have a resident ice magic expert, Ur. She should be arriving soon to help teach you. Erza, Levy and you Lucy should come me; we have some shopping to do. Erza, you'll need some armour, Lucy - some gatekeys, and Levy, we should probably get you a light pen and some gale-force reading glasses. Well come on, let's go!"

Thanks for reading this chapter, and I hope you're enjoying the story! Please favourite, follow and review. As always, constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. See you in the next chapter!


	6. Chapter 6

Hi everyone! Here's another chapter for you! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own FT.

"So where are we going Mira?" I asked, "What kind of shop is going to sell these kinds of items?"

"The one and only magic shop in Magnolia is owned by Mr. Yajima, a good friend of Master Makarov. It's concealed in the heart of Magnolia, unfindable to most people," she replied.

Mirajane led us to yet another room, with a glowing purple circle fixed into the floor. It was rotating slowly, its intricate details changing with every cycle.

"This here," Mirajane said, "is a form of teleportation magic. One of our good friends Mest set this up for us. It allows us to be transported to any other location which has a circle like this on the other side. Fortunately, Mest also installed one for Mr. Yajima, so we'll be able to travel there extremely quickly."

"Woah," I muttered under my breath, "Seems like magic can get pretty powerful,"

"Come on," beckoned Mira, standing in the centre of the circle. We followed suit and stood together in the middle for a few seconds. After a moment the room pulsed with blue light, and my vision faded to white. I closed my eyes, blocking out the light and when I opened them, I found myself in a large room. I stepped out of the purple circle on the floor and looked around. The room was all wood, full of shelves with all sorts of trinkets spread around. On table, beds, sofas, small items covered the room.

"Welcome to the Magic Shop!" smiled Mirajane, "Now why don't we go find Mr. Yajima?"

We followed her through the room, still wondering at our surroundings. Behind a desk at the end of the room, was a small, old man sitting in a chair much too low for him. We had to peer over the desk to see him, and when he saw us, he stood up on top of a stool and welcomed us in.

"Hello there!" the old man warmly greeted us, "I presume you're some of those new magicians from the face blast?"

"Face?" I inquired, the confusion clear on my face.

"Yes, that's them," interrupted Mira before I could ask about this "face blast", "We're looking for some gatekeys, armour and solid script supplies.

"I see," Mr Yajima said, scratching his head thoughtfully, before leading us towards a small shelf on the other side of the room.

"As of now, I've only got one gatekey in my possession, a gold one. It's the key of the twins, I think,"

"How much would you like for it?" asked Mirajane.

"Oh no," the old man shook his head, "There's no way I could charge you for these. The addition of more mages to fight against Tartaros is good enough,"

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to harm your business,"

"No, it's no trouble, I insist."

And with that, he picked up the gold key, and handed straight to me.  
"Good luck with those two," he smiled at me, and led us all into another room. This room was completely different. A long corridor, metal walls, lined with all sorts of clothes. Mr. Yajima led us down the corridor until the sides were lined by armour.

"For a beginner, I'd suggest something like this Heart Kreuz Armour. It may not look like much," he said, gesturing to a fairly simple breastplate, "but it'll be easy to summon for you and lends itself to be used with many different weapons. And it's comfy too!"

"What do you think Erza?" said Mirajane.

"Sure!" she nodded, admiring the metalwork.

Mr. Yajima picked it up effortlessly, and slung it over his back, walking back through the corridor and into the larger room. Levy and I stared at the old man, seemingly carrying an extremely heavy piece of metal, with no trouble.

"Come along," called Mirajane from ahead, and we hurried to reach them.

"Finally," said Mr Yajima, "I've got a light pen, and some gale-force reading glasses for you,"

He picked up a pen and a pair of glasses with, wings attached to them and handed them over to Levy, who immediately examined them thoroughly.

"Don't worry Levy, I'll teach you how to use them later," Mirajane said, before thanking Mr. Yajima and passing the breastplate to Erza. Thanking Mr. Yajima as we went, we stepped back into the circle and returned to the house.

"Why don't we check on how the others are doing, before I teach you what to do with these items," Mirajane said, walking back towards the training room. As we got closer, we could hear shouting coming from the room. Mirajane opened the door a little, revealing the three dragonslayers punching away at punching bags, almost tearing them apart. She closed the door, smiling and we went to check on Gray. We peered through a window in their practice room, and saw Gray sitting in only shorts, in the middle of a room covered in snow and ice. Satisfied that all the training was going well, Mirajane lead us to an empty room and sat us all down.

"I'll start with you Levy, because your items are fairly easy to use. This light pen essentially allows you to write in the air. This will be helpful for you when you start to learn about enchantments. The gale-force reading glasses allow you to read through book, documents, anything, eighteen times faster than normal. Why don't you try them out while I talk to Erza and Lucy?"

Levy started to write in the air, and Mirajane turned to Erza.

"Basically, when you requip, you're summoning items you already posses from a "pocket dimension". So, in order to be able to use this new piece of armour, you're going to have to store it in that dimension. From what I've heard, this isn't usually very easy at first, but I think you'll be able to do it based on how you were able to change clothes yesterday. Hold the armour in you hands and imagine it disappearing into a backpack or something else used for storage,"

Erza held the armour out in her hands, and close her eyes. After a minute or so of intense concentration her aura flickered to life, and the armour started glowing green. A bead of sweat ran down Erza's face, and she clenched her jaw. The armour's glow grew bigger and suddenly with a bright flash of light, it was gone.

"Well done!" exclaimed Mirajane, "From now, you should be able to requip into that set whenever you want,"

Erza nodded before lying down on the ground. The effort had obviously taken a lot out of her.

"And now you, Lucy," said Mirajane, "It's your turn,"

That's all I've got for you all in this chapter. I hope you're enjoying the story! As always, constructive criticism would be appreciated, so feel free to PM me/review. Thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

Welcome back everyone! Here's another chapter - hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own FT.

"And now you, Lucy," said Mirajane, "It's your turn. Unfortunately, this will be the hardest for you. I'm not sure if you know this yet, but the golden spirit keys summon zodiac spirits. They are more powerful than other spirits, but are harder to summon. As you've only just started learning celestial spirit magic, I'm not sure if you'll be able to do it, and even if you can, I'm not sure how long you'll be able to keep the spirits in this world. If you feel too weak during the summoning, stop immediately. I don't want you getting injured. Understood?"

I nodded my head and held up the key, examining it. The key itself was fairly heavy, solid gold. I raised it above my head, holding it tightly with both hands, ready to summon the spirit. I swung the key downwards in an arc.

"Open, gate of the two twins, Gemini!"

I focused on the key, concentrating intently on it. Suddenly, I started to feel a tugging from my stomach. An immense force, much greater than anything I had ever felt. I kept my concentration, but I could feel my body growing weaker with the effort, my strength being sapped out of me. It was too much. I dropped the key and fell flat on my back.

"Lucy?" asked Mirajane worriedly, her face peering into mine, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. I'm fine," I replied tiredly, "It was just a bit much for now, that's all. If I train some more, I'm sure I'll be able to summon Gemini soon."

"Don't worry about it," said Mira, "The fact that you didn't pass out is impressive enough! Let's go meet the others - they should all be done by now, and then you all should get some sleep. This next month won't be easy, so you'll need all the rest you can get."

After I got up, we went to get the others, and decided to have dinner together in the dining hall.

"So what did you guys get up to while we were out?" I asked Natsu and the other dragonslayers.

"We just did some strength training, some more meditation, cool stuff like that!" he replied excitedly, proceeding to tell me about how he managed to burn his punching bag, and of course how annoying Gajeel was. Wendy, Levy and I talked a little as well, but not for too long, as Mirajane insisted that we get to sleep early.

Natsu and I talked a little before we slept, about our old lives, and magic, all sorts of things. It had been a long day, though, and before long, I was asleep.

Mira had been right. The next weeks were incredibly intense. Day after day, we meditated for hours together before practicing our powers together. Erza had grown the most out of all of us. It turned out that she had been in the army before this, and her reflexes and body strength were incredible. Before long, she was requiping in and out of armours, slashing around with blades, like it was nothing. It also turned out that Erza had a ridiculous sum of money sitting in her bank account from a dead relative, most of which she spent on new gear from Mr. Yajima. At this point she had five different armours, all with different skills. The other dragonslayers had also become pretty powerful too. Natsu had all sorts of "special moves" he could use now, all of which involved hitting something really hard with a flaming body part. Gajeel had opened up to us now, and was almost as strong as Natsu. Wendy had surprised us all! Who knew such an innocent looking girl could be so deadly! Gray, somehow, managed to pick up a, stripping habit while Ur was teaching him, but nonetheless, his ice magic was still a force to be reckoned with. Levy improved her solid script techniques and was now learning to write curses from another wizard, Freed who specialised in them.

Me? Well, I definitely have gotten stronger. I can keep Plue out for just about as long as I want, and I got myself a new silver gatekey - Horologium the clock, who I can summon pretty easily too. I still haven't been able to summon Gemini, although I know I'm getting close. Every time I try, I can feel the spirit trying to get through, but I'm just not strong enough yet. More importantly though, Master Makarov gathered us together towards the end of the month to talk to us all about our mission.

"Children," Mater Makarov addressed us, "It's almost been a month since you started learning magic. I have to say, I'm really impressed with your growth and perseverance throughout these past weeks. I'm calling you here for two main reasons. The first is that, I have come up for a name for us. We are, the Fairy Tail Guild. We were brought together by a fairy, so why not name ourselves after it? Does anyone object?"

No-one spoke.

"Good. Now, onto the more important part of this meeting. As I said earlier, it's been about a month since the beast were released upon Fiore. It hasn't been pretty, and there have been all sorts of "accidents" since then. The media's blaming it on terrorists and so on but it's getting pretty bad out there. I've decided that now is the time to strike. The most recent sitings of a beast we're calling "Sabertooth" were in the port town of Hargeon. This appears to be the weakest of the beasts, so it shouldn't be too hard. That said, that doesn't mean you should take this lightly. Your lives, and the lives of many citizens will be in your hands. I'm trusting you to act wisely. We'll take more tomorrow about our plan of action. For now I'll leave you with that information. Make what you will of it, and I'll see you all tomorrow."

And on that bombshell, he walked out.

The pun game is just too strong! Don't worry, we've also got Mermaids, Dogs, and Pegasi coming your way soon! In any case, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are liking the story so far. Please review/PM me with criticism or comments, or even ideas! See you next time!


	8. Chapter 8

Hi everyone! Here's another chapter for you all! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own FT.

The next day, Master Makarov assembled us all together in the main hall. Everyone had been excited yesterday after his speech, and we couldn't wait to hear what else he had to say.

"Alright, everyone, settle down," Master Makarov said, "I hope you've taken in all the information from yesterday because today we'll be talking strategy."

Master Makarov raised his hand a brought up a picture in the air in front of us. The picture was of Hargeon, peaceful as usual. The master waved his hand again and the picture began to move. We watched, horrified as a giant sabertooth tiger, moved into the picture, prowling around carefully before pouncing on a tall building, bringing it down to the ground, crushing several other buildings and people in the process. The tiger itself had white fur, and four long fangs which extended to its neck. The size of the tiger, though, was the astounding part. The tiger towered over the city, and it's head was level with the tallest building in the city. The sheer magnitude of the beast was what had us horrified. We had assumed that the beast would have been a lot smaller, and a lot easier to defeat. The master waved his hand for a final time and the apparition disappeared.

"This is the beast we are up against," said Master Makarov, his voice grave, "and we'll need everyone of you to defeat it. Listen, I know it looks intimidating, but defeating it will not be as difficult as you think it is. Don't forget that we outnumber it by a considerable margin. Now, I have analysed all of the footage that has been collected of it, and I've come up with a plan. The beast itself, is essentially a sabertooth tiger with a few extra magical attributes. Its fur is extremely resistant to magic, and its fangs are imbued with magic, allowing them to extend at will. The monster's body is covered by fur except for two main spots - its eyes and stomach. Those areas will be where we focus our attacks, understood? To make this easier, we're going to split you all up into groups, which will be your current training ones. All seven groups will have specific tasks, so listen carefully. Group 1, we'll need you to draw the tiger's attention with some light attacks, and then lead it to this park," he gestured to another apparition, "where the rest of us will be waiting. Group 7, you'll need to keep the park empty of civilians throughout the fight. It's not a fun job but someone needs to do it. Keep in mind though, Group 1, that tiger is fast, but with the help of Jet in your group, that shouldn't be a problem. At the park, I will occupy the tiger whilst Groups 5 and 6 target the eyes, and 2, 3, 4 and 6 target the belly. Group 1 will help me. Our aim is just to whittle the beast down until it can't fight any more. The park is an open space so when it falls, there shouldn't be any damage. Just remember, no matter what happens, stick to the plan. Don't do anything spontaneous or unexpected. We'll depart early tomorrow morning. I'll let you all discuss your individual group tactics for the rest of the day."

All of our group met again, after a short meal, in a spare training room. We sat together in a circle. No one said anything.

"So who's ready to kick some -!" started Natsu, before Erza interrupted him.

"Natsu. Do you realise what we're up against? This isn't a joke. We need to seriously decide how we're going to approach targeting the beast's eyes, without getting hurt. There are two main ways we can go about doing this. Either we focus on ranged attacks, which would be the safest option, but our accuracy would be reduced. The beast will be moving as we attack, so our attacks would be likely to miss. The other option is to try getting on top of the beast and using physical attacks. It'd be hard to miss with those, but we'd be in more danger. What do you think?"

We all thought for a moment.

"I think physical is the best option." said Gajeel, "Our ranged attacks aren't very powerful, and our target area isn't even that big. There's no point doing it that way,"

"I think Gajeel's right," said Levy, "And while you guys are up there, I can use my solid script to aid you - like, give Natsu fire, or something like that,"

"That's a great idea Levy," said Wendy, "And I think I know how to get us up there. I can use the winds to send us up there one by one. Ooh! And Lucy can protect you with Horologium!"

"Well that's what we'll do then!" said Mirajane, "It's settled. Does anyone have any complaints? No? Then why don't you all practice the magic you'll use tomorrow, and we'll meet up again at the end of the day."

We spent the rest of the day practicing. Honestly, I felt kinda' useless, only being able to keep Horologium and Plue out. Helpfully, Mira gave me a magical whip, to help protect Levy during the battle. I practiced a little with it, but my heart wasn't really in it. I felt useless. If only I could summon Gemini, I could be of some actual use to the group. I decided then and there, that I would do my best to be a valuable asset to the team, and continued practicing, this time with renewed energy.

We all met up again after dinner, excitedly discussing our plan for tomorrow. We should've been terrified, but for some odd reason we were all laughing together and having fun. I knew I made the right decision when I decided to learn magic.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! As always criticism is welcome, so please review and PM! Thanks for reading!


	9. Chapter 9

Welcome back everyone to another chapter! Please leave a review - tell me if you're enjoying this. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own FT.

"Alright. Does anyone have any questions before we set off?" asked Master Makarov, scanning the room for hands. When none were raised, he grinned at us all and shouted, "Let's go then!"

Group by group, we went through the teleportation circle, and found ourselves in the park Master Makarov had told us about yesterday. It was an open space, but hilly, covered in grass with some trees and bushes scattered around, with a winding path cutting through the landscape. Group by group, people kept warping in, until all of us were here.

"Alright, Group 1, from the info we've gathered, the beast should be about five kilometres down that path, near the city square. Head out now, and aim to bring the beast here within another ten minutes. Group 7, start scanning the area and move any civilians out. Just make up some believable excuse and get them out of here. The rest of you hide yourselves around this part of the park, so when I've got the tiger distracted, you can surprise it all a once. Go!" commanded Master Makarov, gesturing urgently.

"Come on guys - let's hide behind those trees!" called Natsu, already running towards a nearby clump of foliage. We all followed suit and waited anxiously for our signal. I could feel my heart pumping faster and faster as we waited there, crouching in the mud. I could feel the adrenaline now, my muscles waiting for the moment to spring.

"I think that's them!" whispered Gray calmly, pointing to a figure in the distance. I squinted my eyes, peering over the hill at the small fast-moving figure. It was moving at a terrific pace towards us, evidently running from the tiger.

"If that's them, then where's the beast?" asked Wendy.

"Right there," said Erza, as it emerged over the horizon. The beast was exactly as we had seen it in the apparition, but that didn't make it any less terrifying. Unlike Jet and the others, we could see the tiger easily, mainly because it towered over everything in sight. It was travelling, fast, extremely fast, its body low and its feet a blur. As its feet disappeared behind the hill we were on, Group 1 appeared, clinging to Jet, terrified as he ran full speed towards Master Makarov. I couldn't make out what Jet was saying to him, but the master's face turned grave. He nodded and Jet and the rest of his group took cover behind some bushes. As the beast emerged over the crest of this hill, still running, Master Makarov grew in size, his body expanding and growing at an alarming rate, until his head was higher than that of the tiger. The old man's body had transformed too, with a ridiculous amount of muscle having been added. We watched in both shock and amazement as the tiger barrelled into the Master's chest snarling and opening its mouth wide. The master braced himself for the impact, and caught the tiger head on, putting his arm around it's neck and keeping it in a headlock. The impact of the blow, was enough to push the master back several meters, but he pushed against the tiger nonetheless. As the tiger opened its mouth to bite into the master's chest, he yelled "Now!" and drove his other fist into the tigers jaw from below.

"Go!" yelled Erza, running straight at the dazed beast. I snapped out of my shock, and started running too. The tiger was still recuperating from the blow the master struck to it, so we'd have enough time to get close to it. The other groups ran out from their hiding places too, and we all ran straight for the beast.

"Wendy, now!" yelled Natsu as he got close to the beast. Natsu leaped up into the air, and Wendy began to cast her magic.

"Sky Dragon Roar!" she shouted, and blasted Natsu up into the air with a powerful gust of wind. Natsu grinned at us, before landing on the beast's back. Steadying his balance, he began running on the beast, towards our target area, the eyes.

"Me next!" shouted Gray, following Natsu. One by one, we jumped onto the beast's back, before running towards its head.

"You're the last one, Lucy," said Wendy, "Are you ready?"

I looked around. Seeing everyone trying so hard for this one cause; I couldn't let my fear let them down.

"Yeah, I'm ready," I smiled, a jumped into the air. Wendy pushed my further up, and I summersaulted through the air, screaming as I went. I looked down and saw how high up I was. Not a good idea. I closed my eyes, tucked myself into a ball and hoped for the best. I clutched my knees tighter and tighter as I whistled through the air, before I hit the beast. Surprisingly, it was, bouncy? I hit the fur hard, bounced a little, before I opened my eyes. Levy was waiting for me a few meters away.

"Come on! The others need us!" she called out to me, offering me a hand. I took it, and pulled myself up. It took a moment to adjust to the moving "ground" but after a moment, we ran towards the head of the beast. Erza had already requipped into her flame empress armour and was slashing at the monster's right eye. Gray was helping Erza, using all sorts of ice magic. The dragonslayers were going all-out on the left eye, and seemed to be doing some serious damage, but they looked tired. There was no way they could keep that up for too long.

"Levy! Natsu and Gajeel need help!" I said, "I'll summon Horologium, so you don't need to worry about the tiger moving while you concentrate on helping them!"

Levy nodded and prepared to use her magic.

"Open, gate of the clock, Horologium!" I cried, swinging the gatekey down in front of me.

With a puff of smoke, Horologium appeared around Levy, his legs quickly adapting to the moving surface. Levy closed her eyes, and began to summon fire and iron near the dragonslayers.

"Thanks Levy!" shouted Natsu and swallowed the fire in one gulp. Before he could get back to the fight though, the beast roared in agony, shaking his head violently. I watched in horror as our group was thrown high up into the air. Erza requipped instantly into black wing armour, and managed and grab onto Gray, saving both of them. Wendy managed to hold onto Gajeel and lower them to the ground, using some powerful winds. Natsu however, was thrown the highest, further than the others. No-one was close enough to him to save him. A fall from that high, would almost certainly be fatal. Suddenly, I had an idea. Mira had told me what Gemini looked like. "Two flying bundles of cuteness" she had called them. I they could fly, there was a chance they could save Natsu! I wasn't sure it would work, or if I'd even be able to summon them, but I had to at least try it.

"Open, gate of the two twins, Gemini!" I shouted, focusing all of my energy on the key. I had to summon Gemini. It was the only way we could save Natsu. For a moment, nothing happened. Then I felt the tugging from my gut again. All of a sudden, the spirit appeared. Two little blue, things, floating in the air. Immediately, I felt tired. The strain of keeping Gemini out was a lot, but i could hold it a little longer.

"I know I haven't made a contract with you yet, but please save Natsu!" I pleaded, the urgency clear in my voice. Without a word, Gemini sped towards Natsu, each one catching on of his legs, and holding him in the air. I sighed in relief; he was safe.

"Lucy!" called Natsu, "Tell them to throw me at the beast! I have an idea!"

"Sure," I replied, not stopping to realise how much of a bad idea that was, "Gemini, throw him at the tiger!"

With a squeal of "piri-piri", the two twins threw him full force towards the tiger's face.

The last thing I saw before I passed out, was the expression of pure rage on Natsu's face as he flew towards the tiger, his body cloaked in fire.

First of all, before you all start hating, keep in mind that this is my first combat scene I've written. Ever. That said, I'd definitely value any suggestions or criticisms on how to improve at this kind of writing. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you all in the next chapter.


	10. Chapter 10

Hello Everyone! After last chapter's events, this one is going to be a lot more relaxed. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own FT.

The man hidden in the shadows was back. And so was the bird-like demon kneeling in front of him. Like before, she was shaking with fear, her eyes pressed shut, as if to deny reality from affecting her. She was gripping her knees tightly, her claws drawing small amounts of blood.

"So Kyôka, what news have you to report to me?" the man asked, slowly, "The plan is going well, I assume?"

"W - w - well my Lord. The Sabertooth has been, killed, by those people, calling themselves "Fairy Tail". And the Lamia* set off a landslide which killed itself, and incurred massive damage to a nearby town. But, all the other beasts are still alive. The plan is still possible, my Lord. So please don't punish me -"

"Oh, please. You fools aren't worth my time. I won't even bother with that," he exclaimed, scorn in his voice.

Slowly, he rose from his throne of shadows, walking past the kneeling Kyôka.

"I think it's time for me to get involved,"

—

I blinked a few times, my eyes darting around, my heart still pounding quickly from the dream. In the dream, they had mentioned the Sabertooth, and another thing, a Lamia*. They had to be referring to the Sabertooth we had battled. At least that meant Natsu and the others had succeeded. It couldn't have been a dream could it? I made a mental note to ask Master Makarov about it.

I looked around the room, quickly getting a feel of my surroundings. I was in a cottage, with a thatched roof and a fairly normal interior. On my left was an old woman, staring at me.

"Um, where am I?" I asked her cautiously.

"You're in my cottage," she replied, "Recovering from your injuries,"

"Injuries?" I thought to myself, "Oh right, from the battle,"

"All your friends are fine" she said, in a voice that conveyed all but happiness, "And after a week of being unconscious, and all the medicine I gave you, I'd think you'd probably be better too. Try lifting your arms and legs,"

I sighed with relief, and did as she said, lifting various limbs and bending different joints. After a while, she seemed satisfied.

"Well, now that you're better," she said, reaching for a broom with an evil smile, "Get out of my house!"

And with that, she pushed me towards the door, a magical circle appearing at my feet as she did so, and the white light consumed me. It must have been a teleportation circle, as I quickly found myself back at "Fairy Tail", as it was now called. I stepped out of the room, making my way down empty corridors, on my way to the main hall. I pushed open the doors, to find the whole guild eating in a subdued silence. No one seemed to have noticed my entrance.

"Guys?" I asked, confused by their downcast appearance, "What happened?"

Everyone's heads swung towards me, the room completely silent. Then Natsu flew towards me, out of nowhere, tackling me with a bear hug.

"Where were you Lucy?" he asked, separating himself from me, "We all thought you were dead! After you disappeared at the end of the battle, no-one knew where you were. We all thought you were gone for sure. But you're here! Where did you go?"

"What?" I asked, surprised by this response, "I was recovering with this weird old lady, who kicked me out of her house today,"

"I thought this might have happened," said Master Makarov, from the back of the room, "That old Porlyusica never wanted any contact with us, but she'd always help when needed. In any case, welcome back Lucy!"

Natsu dragged me back to our usual table, an empty seat still left there, for me. The room was full of chatter and noise now, smiling faces everywhere. I looked at my friends all waiting for me at the table, saving a place for me. I sat down, knowing there'd always be a place for me a Fairy Tail.

* Okay, I think FT Guilds were made for this, because according to reliable sources (Wikipedia), Lamia was a Greek queen, who became a child-eating daemon. And, some artists depictions show her as a leopard like being, with scales. (Lamia Scale)

Sorry for the short chapter guys, but I didn't want to have the story progress too much in such a short time, so I'm gonna leave it here for now. As always, constructive criticism would be much appreciated. See you all in the next chapter!


	11. Chapter 11

Welcome to another chapter everyone! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own FT.

"Settle down all of you!" Master shouted at us all. We were all gathered in the main hall, after the Master had requested us to after yesterday's dinner.

"I've got some important news for all of you," he said, his face serious, "I've received word from two of my dear friends, Ooba and Sting. Do you all remember how you came to have your current powers? Well, it seems you're not the only ones. Others like you were created from the Sabertooth we destroyed, as well as another beast that was destroyed, a Lamia. Those other mages are in similar positions to you. Sting and Ooba have taken up roles to lead them, as I do. I just thought it would be good for you to know, that we do have allies out there. And finally, I have decided on which beast we should take on next. The mermaid. It has been causing trouble in Hargeon, sinking ships and causing floods. However, we won't attempt to defeat it yet. You all still need at least another week of rest and then another of training and planning before it makes sense to approach it. So go! Relax, train, shop, do whatever you want before the beginning of next week. Because from then on, we'll need your full effort to defeat the mermaid."

Everyone got up, excitedly making plans with friends - shopping, training, some just chilling out. I for one, needed to thank Gemini of the help it gave me during our recent battle, as well as make a contract with it. As we were leaving the room, Natsu popped up next to me.

"Hey Luce! I forgot to tell you yesterday, but after we destroyed that Sabertooth, we were able to sell its fur for some ridiculous prices. Thanks to that, Master Makarov shared it between all of us - coming to about 200,000 jewel per person! He's already given it out to all of us, and here's yours! I asked him about it after you arrived and he gave it to me to give to you," he said, handing me a large pouch, "Anyway, I'm gonna go train with Gray - if I don't beat him up, who will? Later Luce!"

I smiled after him, and tucked the pouch away in a pocket before, finding an empty room to summon Gemini. I took a deep breath and took out my only golden key.

"Open! Gate of the two twins, Gemini!" I shouted, bringing the key down in front of me. The familiar bright light appeared and I could feel the key pulling on my power reserves. But, this time, I felt as if I could keep the gate open for so much longer. That Porlyusica must have not only healed me, but upgraded me too? In any case, Gemini blinked into existence in front of me.

"Piri-piri," they squealed, dancing in mid-air.

"Gemini, first of all, I'd like to thank you for the help you gave us last week in the battle we had. If it weren't for you, it's possible I wouldn't be here today," I said.

"No problem," said Gemini, doing a little victory dance.

"And also, I'd like to form a contract with you," I said, "Would you mind?"

"Nope," said Gemini happily.

"So . . . are you free on Mondays?" I began.

—

After half an hour of bargaining, I had finally secured a contract with Gemini. To be honest, I had expected it to take a lot longer than it had. I wasn't really sure, what I'd do now. Then, I remembered the 200,000 jewel I had in my pocket. Surely, that'd be enough to buy at least one more gatekey. With that in mind, I headed through the teleportation circle, to Mr Yajima's shop. As I appeared on the other side, I caught sight of Erza.

"Hey, Erza!" I called, "What're you here for?"

"Oh, hello there Lucy!" she replied, "I'm just taking advantage of that 200,000 jewel and using it to add to my armour collection. Actually, I was wondering, could you, help me choose?"

"Sure!"

I followed her into the armour corridor for a while before she stopped abruptly.

"I'm trying to choose between this Adamantine Armour, and this Lightning Empress Armour to train with for the battle ahead. The Adamantine Armour provides ridiculous defence, while the Lightning Empress Armour allows me to utilise the power of lightning. Both could prove useful against a mermaid," she said, evidently not sure which to choose.

"I'd say the Adamantine Armour. Your attacks are still pretty powerful without lightning, so with an impenetrable defence, it'd be the ultimate combo," I said, voicing my thoughts.

"That's true!" Erza said, "I agree. Thank you, Lucy."

And with that, she hefted the armour over her shoulder and headed back down the corridor. I still wanted to buy another gatekey, so I found Mr Yajima and asked him if any new ones had come into his hands since I bought my first one from him.

"Actually," he said, "A new golden key came in just yesterday, a very special one. Leo, the lion. Here, I'll show you,"

He brought me over to one of the many tables in the shop, and picked up the shining key.

"Leo is an incredibly powerful spirit. He employs light magic in combination with his physical strength, which allows him to deal significant damage. I'm selling it for only 190,000 jewels, a cheap price for one so powerful."

I sighed internally. There goes most of my money already.

"I'll take it," I said, excited by the prospect of a new spirit. Reluctantly, I handed over the 190,000 jewels needed, and, saying goodbye to Mr Yajima, walked back into the teleportation circle. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to summon Leo yet, but I knew I was going to have to train a lot in these two weeks if I wanted to be anywhere near as strong as the others.

Thanks for reading this chapter! More exciting stuff coming in the next one. Thanking for reading, and as always, constructive criticism would be appreciated. See you in the next chapter!


	12. Chapter 12

Hey everyone! Here's another chapter! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own FT.

"Alright everyone!" said Mirajane, smiling at our group, "Now that you've all had a week of rest, it's time to get back to training. At this point, I think you all have a pretty good idea of what you each need to work on. So get to it!"

We all stood up, and headed in our different directions. We were all gathered in a multipurpose room. Gray headed to Ur's room, the dragonslayers to the punching bags, Levy to the library and Erza found a corner to practice her sword skills and requipping. I found myself an empty space in the room where I could try summoning Leo for the first time. In the past week I had built myself up to this, by keeping Gemini out for longer and longer times, and using their transformation skills. I could feel my reserve of magical energy expanding the whole time. Hopefully it would be enough to summon Leo. I took out the golden key, closing my fingers on it and holding it high above my head. I took a deep breath. Judging by what Mr Yajima had said, and the extra research I had done, Leo was incredibly powerful. He would be an great asset to our group.

"Open, gate of the Lion! Leo!"

I brought the key down in front of my face, prepared for the drain in magical power. There was a characteristic bright flash of light, and the signature tugging in my stomach. As the light faded, Leo appeared. My power reserves had been drained significantly with the summoning, but keeping Leo out of the spirit world was hardly affecting my store of magical energy.

"Well, hello there Miss Lucy," Leo said, slyly, "It's a pleasure to meet your acquaintance,"

"You too," I replied, caught of guard. Somehow I hadn't expected the leader of the zodiac spirits to be so, smooth.

"I'd like to make a contract with you -" I began, before he cut me off.

"No need, Miss Lucy. Whenever you call, I'll be there," he said, winking as he spoke.

"I've heard that you specialise in Regulus, a form of combat light magic. I was wondering if you could show me some of it? Just so I know what kind of power you've got?"

"Of course, Miss Lucy," he replied. He placed his left hand on top of his chest, and began to chant.

"O Regulus, grant me your power!" he shouted, raising his arms as he did so. Within seconds, they began pulsing with bright light. Leo gave me a cunning grin. He brought his fists together, arms outstretched in front of him.

"Regulus Impact!" he yelled, and a yellow magic circle appeared at his wrists. Light gathered at his hands before it rushed away quickly, forming the head of a lion. The majestic beast threw light all across the room, as it travelled towards a wall, roaring as it did so. Before it hit the wall, Leo put his hands down, and the lion head dissipated into the air.

"So, Miss Lucy, what do you think?" Leo said, turning towards me. I hastily closed my open mouth.

"Amazing! I didn't even feel a drain on my magic energy," I replied, energetically.

"Yes, my own magic draws on my own reserves. No damage to the celestial mage,"

"Thank you for your time, Leo. Just so you know, I'll probably be calling on you towards the end of this week,"

"Spirit world time is different to your world, but I'll keep it in mind. It was a pleasure to meet you," he said, smiling, and disappeared with a flash of light. I returned the key to my pocket, before looking up to see the rest of the group staring open mouthed at me.

"Lucy," said Natsu, his voice dead serious, "That. Was. AWESOME! Did you see how he made a lion dragon thing and it almost destroyed the wall! That's so cool!"

"For once, I have to agree," said Erza, smiling, "It was truly incredible,"

"Well done Lucy!" said Mirajane, "That's incredible progress since the last time we saw you last summon Gemini. It'll really come in handy against the Mermaid,"

Everyone congratulated me in their own way, and I spent the rest of the session training with Gemini, my spirits high. Later on, when we were eating lunch, I spotted Master Makarov. I suddenly realised that I hadn't had the chance to ask him about the strange visions. I got up from the table, assuring my friends I'd be back soon, and went over to him, sitting at his own table.

"Ah Lucy," said Master Makarov, "How are you?"

"I'm doing well," I responded, "But I actually wanted to ask you about something,"

"Ask away," he smiled back.

"Well," I began, and continued to explain the visions I had had, from the first one on the day of the Fairy's summoning to the more recent ominous one, during my stay with Porlyusica. As I spoke, his expression grew darker and darker, until I finished.

"Lucy. Those don't sound like ordinary dreams to me. What you're speaking of sounds like you were witnessing real events at the stronghold of Tartaros. That, while it provides useful information about what Tartaros is planning, could end up being dangerous for you. Dreams are interesting things, but they also provide a link to your physical body. I'm not sure what say - I've never dealt with anything like this. Try not to get too drawn in by the visions. If Tartaros finds out you've seen into their stronghold, there's no telling what lengths they'll go to to get rid of you. Just, be careful," he said, looking directly at me. I nodded, and headed back to my table, scared by what I had been told. These visions which I had thought were only nightmares, could in fact be a way for Tartaros to find me. And if they found me, they'd find the whole guild. I couldn't let that happen.

Thanks for reading everyone! As usual, any suggestions, tips or criticism would be valued! See you in the next chapter!


	13. Chapter 13

Hey everyone! Sorry for the late post and short chapter - I've been busy with school. The next chapter should be up later this week. Here's another chapter - Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own FT.

"Alright everyone. Settle down," Master Makarov said, over our anxious whispering, "First of all, I'm not sure what you've heard about mermaids, but they are not small cute creatures. They are savage beasts, and are massive, even bigger than the Sabertooth you fought earlier. Even worse, they rarely come out of oceans or seas. They prefer to attack from a distance, causing floods and even tsunamis with their huge tails. Now for the plan. In the water, the mermaid will be impossible to defeat. So, we need to lure it out of water. Luckily, Hargeon has a large port, which can be closed off from the ocean, during storms. If we lure the mermaid into the port, close the doors behind it, and drain the water, it should be an easy target. Group 4, with Lissana and Elfman, you guys will need to either transform yourselves or disguise yourselves to look like large fish. Mermaids are surprisingly picky, so make sure to look delicious. After you lure the mermaid into the port, Groups 1 and 2, you'll need to close the doors behind it. Finally, Mirajane, we'll need your Satan Soul, Evil Explosion spell to drain the port area. Then, Groups 3 and 5 will distract the beast by fighting at it's face. I'll restrain its arms. The rest of you will have to work as hard as you can at its scales. Whilst they are extremely protective, they store a lot of the beast's magic power. Without them, it'll be easier to defeat. And one final thing. Take this seriously. Just because you've defeated one beast, doesn't mean this'll be a piece of cake. We'll take it on on Sunday. Be ready,"

After lunch, our group met together in one of the training rooms.

"Alright everyone. Since we'll be fighting at the face of the beast, I suggest you just train for the rest of today. You're going to need to be down significant damage if you want to distract the beast for long enough that the others can pull off enough scales. Go ahead!" said Mirajane.

I considered summoning Leo, but instead worked more with Gemini, having them transform into Natsu, Gray, Wendy - even Erza! We trained hard for the rest of the day, only stopping when it was time to eat and sleep. Tomorrow we would take on the mermaid.

—

"Rogue, Rufus, Minerva, Orga, come with me," Sting said to the four mages, interrupting their training session. The four mages, stopped their training and followed him obediently. Once they were out of earshot of the other members of the guild, Sting began to speak.

"You guys remember when I explained to you about how you received your powers, right? Well, another beast like the one which was defeated by Fairy Tail has been spotted nearby. It's one of the weaker beasts, and it shouldn't be too hard for you to defeat. It would be a good use of your time, and would definitely be a good training experience. Are you in?" Sting asked.

"Sure," replied Rogue.

"Of course,"

"No problem,"

"Why not?"

"Alright then," said Sting, starting to grin, "The beast itself is called Cerberus. You know the myth. It's a three headed dog, covered in snakes. It's the least powerful of the beasts, so I think we'll be able to take it easily. Now get back to training - we'll leave in a few days,"

Sorry for the short chapter guys - it's a bit of a filler since I want the Fairy Tail battle against the mermaid to be in it's own chapter. To make up for it, the next chapter will probably be out quicker that usual. In any case, I hoper you enjoyed and I'll see you in the next chapter!


	14. Chapter 14

This'll be the Mermaid battle chapter! I hope you'll enjoy this one, and please make sure to leave a review!

—

We spent the rest of the day training - and early the next morning we woke up early to quickly prepare in our groups, and listen to Master Makarov's pre-speech pep talk. Before long, we were heading through the teleported to Hargeon, the site of the battle.

The port was just as Master Makarov had described it, a large circular enclosure with massive sea-facing gates. As Master Makarov started clearing civilians out of the port, having made up some fictional danger that they needed to run from, all the members of Fairy Tail started organising ourselves into our groups for this battle.

"All right guys!" grinned Natsu, "Who's ready to fry up one big fish!"

"It's a mermaid Natsu," said Erza, "And remember what our focus is - to attack at the face and neck, where it has no protective scales, "I know, I know," he said.

As we continued to chatter, and go over our plans, Master Makarov approached and began to speak again.

"The coast is clear! There shouldn't be any civilians left around the port area. Are you all ready?" he shouted.

"Yeah!" I replied, as the other Fairy Tail members yelled back at him.

"Then let's go! Group 4 - follow Mirajane towards to beach. We're counting on you guys to lure the beast in. Groups 1 and 2, get to the gates - we'll need you to hold them closed. Groups 3 and 5 - follow me to those boats over there - we'll be able to jump onto the Mermaid from there once the water's been drained. Let's go!" Master Makarov ordered, and we followed him down to the boats.

"Natsu! Stop fighting with Gray and watch the gates - the mermaid could be coming any minute now," Erza said, whacking Natsu on the head, "Who knows how long it'll take the other to find the mermaid and lure it in - but we need to be ready for it when it's trapped,"

"S-s-sorry Erza," said Natsu, hanging his head, and standing with the rest of us.

"Hey, Wendy?" I asked, "Would you mind shooting Leo onto the mermaid when the time is right? I don't now if he can jump far enough or land safely - we'll be a lot higher than the mermaid once the water's drained,"

"Sure," she smiled, "Just tell me when,"

Suddenly, a shout echoed round the port, coming from the gates. The shouting got louder, as Lissana and Elfman, in the form of large fish swam at a breakneck pace through the gates, Mirajane flying above them, using her Satan Soul. They jumped out of the water, transforming back into their usual selves in midair, and landed next to Levy.

"It's almost here!" shouted Elfman, as a rumbling noise started from the direction they had swum here from. Mirajane flew higher into the sky, positioning herself where she had a view of the full port.

As the rumbling grew louder and louder, I took out my key for Leo, and clutched it tightly. On the horizon, a disturbance in the calm waters began moving towards us, cutting through the water seamlessly. It came closer and closer, hiding below the water level, before exiting right before the port. Jumping majestically out of the water, the mermaid bore down the port, its body poised and ready to splash back into the water. As expected, its lower half was that of a fish - a forked tail like a whale, but covered in turquoise scale, and a whole lot bigger. Its top half resembled a human, with large claws sprouting from each finger, long wavy hair falling from its head. However, as Master Makarov had warned us, even its human portion was covered in protective scales. As it soared through the air towards us, it bared its lengthy fangs, almost like a tiger. Its jump had propelled it so far through the air, it was heading straight for us! I stood, stunned next to my friends, by this terrifying but striking beast. None of us could move. I shook myself, and willed my muscles to move, to propel me away from the monster heading towards me. But they wouldn't move. All I could move was my eyes. I looked over at my friends, and none of them were moving. I looked back at the mermaid - its eyes were glowing red and staring straight at our group, fixated on us. It must be the mermaid freezing us in place.

All the while, the mermaid was getting closer. Master Makarov activated his powers, growing and growing until he was even larger than the mermaid, breaking out of the mermaid's hold.

"I guess it can only hold control over one area. Master Makarov became to large for the mermaid to control," I thought to myself.

Master Makarov leapt into the air, bringing his right fist round in a jarring right hook to the mermaid's face, stopping its jump and bringing it down into the water, breaking the mermaid's control on us.

"Now Mirajane! Close the gates!" he shouted, gripping the mermaid tightly as they splashed down into the water.

Shouting broke out as Groups 1 and 2 closed the port gates, and above us, Mirajane began casting her spell.

"Evil Explosion!" she yelled, sucking up all the water trapped in the port, and directing it all as a powerful blast out into the sea. Now that the water was gone, it was our cue to attack. The mermaid was too powerful to take on in water.

Down on the port floor, Master Makarov had the mermaid pinned on the ground.

"Come on!" he shouted.

Natsu, Gray, Erza and Gajeel jumped off to the fight, Natsu yelling as he fell towards the beast's face.

"Open, gate of the Lion, Leo!" I shouted, brining Leo's key down in front of me. The bright light appeared, and Leo jumped out, ready to fight.

'What's up Miss Lucy?" he asked.

"Oh you know, I was just casually defeating a giant mermaid, and thought you could be a help," I replied.

"No problem," he said.

"Make sure you go for the face, and be careful not to look into its eyes too much," I said nodding at Wendy, "Wendy here will push you over there with her wind magic,"

"Sounds good," he said, adjusting his glasses, before jumping off into the fight, propelled by Wendy.

I watched the battle intently, waiting for the right moment to tell Leo to use Regulus Impact. Suddenly, someone from Group one shouted out to Master Makarov, "The gate's breaking!"

I looked over in the direction of the gate and sure enough, the gate was starting to collapse, water leaking into the port.

"Everyone! Get out of the port!" shouted Master Makarov, stopping up mages in his arms, and jumping our to hold the gate closed. However, even Master Makarov could keep back the force of the ocean, and the port started filling up again.

"Keep the mermaid busy!" Master Makarov shouted, "We can't let it escape now!"

The mages focused their efforts on distracting the mermaid, but as the water covered it completely, all its injuries began to heal. Before long, it was as if the battle had never happened. Jus was it had before, the mermaid leapt out of the water, but this time, not towards any of us, but towards a group of girls, running from the port.

"They must not have left earlier," I cursed under my breath, "None of the others are close enough to the mermaid to do anything. I can't let those girls die! It may not be easy, but I'll have to summon Gemini!"

"Open, Gate of the Two Twins! Gemini!" I cried, immediately feeling the toll on my energy, having two gates open.

"Gemini! Please, transform into Wendy and use your wind magic to save those girls! And Leo, as quick as you can, use Regulus Impact on the mermaid! Go!"

Gemini sped towards the girls, transforming in mid-air into Wendy, and sent a powerful blast of air towards the girls, pushing them out of the way, leaving the mermaid to smash its head on the ground. While it was temporarily dazed, Leo leapt into the air, high above the beast, and shouted

"Regulus . . . "

Light gathered at his fists, collecting into a large ball. It grew larger and larger, and as the mermaid turned with red eyes, hearing his cry, he released the lion of light, right into the beasts red eyes.

"Impact!"

The lions raced through the air, striking the mermaid head on. The force of the lion, and the resulting crack of the mermaid's skull against the ground could be heard from miles away. The girls had been saved, and the mermaid was down.

—

And there you have it, the mermaid fight! I hope that you all enjoyed reading, and as always, please leave a review telling me what you thought could have been better. The next chapter should be out within the next week. Thanks for reading!


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